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International Conference on

Recent Trends in Environmental Sustainability

ESCON22/SAgri/48

Assessment of nuclear diversity of morchella species from northern regions of Pakistan
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Ahtezaz Rafiq , Abdul Rehman Khan , Yasar Sajjad , Arshad Mehmood Abbasi , Abdul
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Nazeer , Rida Haider , Taimoor Khan , Urooj Javed and Shahid Masood Shah
1 Department of Biotechnology, COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus,
University Road, 22060 Abbottabad, Pakistan
2 Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad
Campus, University Road, 22060 Abbottabad, Pakistan
Correspondence: smasood@cuiatd.edu.pk
Abstract
Morchella species are a large group of edible mushrooms in the Morchellaceae family that
have medicinal and economic value. They are mostly present at high altitudes of 2500-3500 m
in dense conifers forest and some are also present in silt soil which is rich in nutrients. Morels
phenotypic variability has made morphological classification difficult, resulting in taxonomic
uncertainty within the genus. This uncertainty for Morchella species classification can only be
tackled by analyzing at the genetic level with the help of DNA markers. Genetic diversity of
Morchella species grown under natural conditions in northern and galyat areas of Pakistan is
rarely investigated for phylogenetic relationship. Keeping in view this aspect of morels the
present study was designed to analyze nuclear diversity of Morchella species through ITS and
SNPs markers. The samples were collected in the growing season of Morchella species from
selected areas followed by DNA extraction. The extracted DNA was subjected to PCR
amplification by exploiting selected SNPs and ITS markers. Genomic DNA isolation was done
in this study, which was amplified by 15 SNPs and 3 ITS markers to assess polymorphism in
10 Morchella samples. One of the eight primers evaluated in the current study (Ao1) the most
polymorphism among the 10 samples examined. A similarity matrix was created using the
SNPs and ITS profile to create a dendrogram for phylogenetic analysis, indicating the
relationship between the three Morchella species. The dendrogram shows three groups which
are G-1, G-2 and G-3 group. The G-1 showed maximum variation from G-2 and G-3 group.
The variation showed by the G-1 group is due to different environmental factors which include
moisture content, nutrient availability, temperature, and atmospheric pressure. These findings
need to be validating by extensive sampling of Morchella species throughout the country.
Keywords: Morchella, Genetic Diversity, SNPs, ITS, PCR, Conifers Tree

Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus

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